I've been using Studio One for a few months. It's good. I don't like the audio editing as much as PT, and I'm not as familiar with their plugins, but the audio engine is rock solid. Totally outperforms PT!

Really the only reason I've been staying with PT is Studio One's bundled drum plugin doesn't sound as good as Xpand 2. So I've been using PT for drum programming.

I've been wanting to improve my programmed drum sounds, and I've been considering buying Superior Drummer, but I didn't want to pay the $399 for it. Seems like Avid has decided to push me that way though. Instead of paying $199/yr for PT and another $49/yr for the complete plugin bundle, I can buy Superior Drummer. I'm only behind $150 the first year, but after that I don't have to pay anymore unless I decide to upgrade.

And while we were waiting for 2019.5 to come out, S1 released 2 updates for free. The last upgrade had some really great new features. PT's paid update had virtually no new features.

I hate to do it because I love working in PT, but as a hobbyist who makes no money from this, I just can't justify the cost. Hopefully PT 2019.5 will continue to work for years with my perpetual license so I don't have to move all my sessions over to S1.

I've been using S1 for about 3 years. Went there to try and unburden myself from Pro Tools. I haven't left PT behind for 2 very important reasons. 1: The solo in place in Studio is broken when automation mutes are written. When in SIP any number of tracks that have reverb sidechained to an efx track (they are in solo safe by default) will have the audio to the mix buss muted, but the efx send will still send audio to the reverb efx track rendering SIP useless. This bug has been there since V2.6.5 and I've written to dev about it, made a video illustrating it, complained in their forums about it, but nothing has been done about it to date. So, no mixing while using solo with automation.... Also, when taken out of SIP any number of tracks will remain muted even though the mute buttons show otherwise. The only way around that is to mute then unmute the offending tracks or stop the transport and restart it...showstopper for me. 2: There is no AudioSuite functionality. i.e. you can't put an effect on a section of a track only. The only way to accomplish this is to cut the section to a new track, do the audio treatment, then paste it back in place to the old track.

I'm looking into Cubase now because of S1's inadequacies and Pro Tools arrogance.

First off...why is there a dialog box at the bottom that looks like you can write a reply there whence it tells you to click one of the quick reply buttons above to leave a quick reply in the quick reply field which takes you to a completely different screen? Now I'm not surprised about this ridiculous price hike.

Avid, the industry is NOT moving toward a subscription-based platform for software distribution. Adobe was the first major software developer that went full subscription because they knew that people were bound to the software and schools only used their software because the teacher and students easily traded files natively between Mac and PC. Photoshop is a household tool...Pro Tools is NOT.

A lot of us CHOOSE to use Pro Tools because of the software update...not because the software is awesome. It's the only fairly priced DAW that is always up to date provided we keep up the plan. I loved that about PT. Now, I'm looking elsewhere and I'm finding that Studio One and Nuendo wipe the floor with PT. LOL...and you want to make everyone turn to subscription licensing?

You're not Adobe. Households don't even know what a Pro Tool is. So, you need all members to keep paying. Actually, the only people that would do subscriptions without flinching, could be the studios, but people like me will stop using Pro Tools. When that happens, I'll be doing projects natively in something else and hand those project files to studios. Guess what, they want the business, and will ask for the PT native files. Too bad...since Avid gave us the finger, now I do my projects in Cubase or Nuendo. Now, either the studio is going to have to start using different DAWs or lose the business because I'll just go to another studio that doesn't use PT.

I'm sure on paper you think by doubling the Perpetual Licensee's Annual Update will still keep the paychecks the same from the money of people who continue to pay that exorbitant price but the fact is, on paper it may look like a doable strategy but in the long run, you've created enemies and a lifelong hatred toward Avid. Adobe is losing life-long patrons, like myself to Resolve. I'm now doing ALL my video projects in Resolve. Guess what...it's just a matter of time before Resolve integrates with RX...then Pro Tools is DEAD to all the Post Production studios.

In a time when the media industry is growing, you're pushing people away when you should be trying to gain more clients...especially when your competition is outdoing you in every way. Heck, I actually downloaded BandLab or whatever it's called...that Free Cakewalk DAW. It loaded a video file and I was able to a complete a project with that, just to see what it can do. I tried to do it in Pro Tools (the current one) and it crashed upon loading the video file. This is insane.

I'm not surrendering my perpetual license. I suggest you all NEVER to do that. I am no longer going to support this company until they change the price for the Perpetual Update to at least something more reasonable IF they MUST increase the price...but NOT DOUBLE. That is insane.

I'm sure you wouldn't like it if you lost HALF your clients within a week. Seriously, stop this nonsense and start acting like the responsible and musician friendly mentor you could be...not a blood sucking leech.

Ignore typos-I'm not proof reading this right now..I'm much too aggravated.

Thinking of moving to another DAW too after my update plan in PT runs out. (Still considering my options, most likely Logic) Hoping they introduce at least one more update until October for me to feel better about spending money last year. I felt neutral to Avid and loved PT but my perception now changed considerably. Of course, big businesses should be able to afford such a price increase, but one-man acts like me can't justify this when there are other perfectly viable options.